This is certainly not the only memorable kill from the film. “Friday the 13th” also brutally killed a young Kevin Bacon in one of his first major film roles. But the axe to Marcie’s face always stood out as a particularly brutal moment. The fact that it was accomplished using such modest means is remarkable.

Miller also touched on the topic and explained that visual effects legend Tom Savini was in some way responsible for determining how they went about accomplishing the kill. As Miller explained, Savini presented the team with two options; use a real axe and a fake face, or use a fake axe and a real face. As silly as that sounds, the choice made a big difference.

“Tom had outlined the whole script and written notes and everything and he looked at me and Sean and said, ‘Okay, I see on page 42’ – or whatever it was – ‘you got an axe in the face. So do you want a real axe in a fake face or a fake axe in a real face?’ [Laughs]. I just fell over laughing. It wasn’t my job to try to figure out any of that stuff but I just loved, here was a man who was being paid to take my stupid italics seriously and figure out a way to make it look like a woman had an axe in her face.”

“Sean said real face, fake axe, and we went on,” Miller concluded. The decision panned out and it contributed to making “Friday the 13th” a major success. It was just the first of many films that followed in the ensuing decades. More recently, A24 partnered with Peacock for a “Crystal Lake” TV series that might have starred Charlize Theron as Pamela Voorhees. It’s now in limbo and horror fans are still waiting for the franchise to return. If nothing else, this anecdote demonstrates that a new show or movie wouldn’t necessarily have to be expensive to be effective.